


Life Out of the Water

by unimaginable



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Prince Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Boys In Love, F/M, Falling In Love, Hurt Lance (Voltron), M/M, Merperson Lance (Voltron), Protective Keith (Voltron), Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-20 20:32:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17629187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unimaginable/pseuds/unimaginable
Summary: Lance is frustrated with his "perfect" life set up for him in the Kingdom of Altea. When he is accidentally washed ashore, he meets a land boy named Keith that agrees to take him in and show him around the land of the humans. Lance takes this opportunity to forge a life he wants with people that he enjoys spending time with.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! To start this story, I just want to say that I hope you enjoy it, and all grammar/spelling errors are 100% my fault. Don't be afraid to comment for any advice/feedback, it is always appreciated! Anyways, enjoy :))

Chapter One

Lance’s POV

The water rushed past my face. I was desperately scratching at the water that surrounded me, trying to see the predator that was circling me. When the image of the shark became clearer, it was much too late. It lunged at me and managed to scratch a portion of my tail. 

I screamed with pain and immediately started swimming the other way. Every flap of my tail stung, but I pushed through the pain in hopes of finding a quiet shore where I could dry off.   
After swimming as fast as possible for over five minutes, the pain in my tail had become unbearable. In all this pain, the fact that the shark had stopped following me was lost. In the back of my mind, I noticed that I was no longer in direct danger, but the damage done to my tail still caused panic. 

In the corner of my eye, I noticed a small group of coral that was familiar. I was near a shore, I thought to myself. I swam, much slower than before towards the beach. Lucky for me, this beach was usually empty, which meant it was a perfect spot to change into having legs. 

I dragged myself up to the beach behind a rock, just in case someone happened to be enjoying the same beach. Once I completely had pulled myself up, I examined the wound more closely. It would definitely be noticeable to all my friends and family in the ocean, but when I became human, it would completely disappear. 

God, I should have listened to Hunk. Why am I like this? None of this would be happening right now if I could just stick to the restrictions of the kingdom I scolded myself.

Lost in my frantic thoughts, I didn’t notice the guy who walked up to me until I heard his loud gasp.

“Y-you, um, you,” he stuttered.

S**t. “Please, please don’t be scared. Please.”

“Look, I’ll just,” he gestured back towards the mainland and started slowly walking back.  
“Wait! Please, I know this is weird but please, listen to me. I’m hurt.” I begged. 

The boy looked down at my tail to see the blood gushing from my wound. His eyes were wide with panic and I, yet again, had to calm him down.

“No! Look. OK, don’t worry that much about the blood and everything.” God I sounded like an idiot. “I just, I need a towel. Do you happen to have one of those?”  
The boy shook his head as if pulling himself out of a trance. He looked me straight in the eyes and seemed to have became less flustered.

“Um, I, well, no. Not on me. But I t-think the more important thing is the-” He gestured at my tail. I wanted to laugh at how uncomfortable he looked but my growing pain stopped the chuckle at my throat. 

“No, look. If you truly care if I’m going to be OK, then you need to find me a towel.” I stated firmly. With new instructions, the boy turned on his heels and headed towards his spot on the beach and returned with a red towel. 

He reached down and handed me the towel. I started drying myself off and once all the water was gone, my tail separated into two legs. At this transformation, the boy looked stunned once again. His mouth hung open, but slammed shut after a few seconds.

“OK. OK. OK. This is fine. This is, well, not fine, but, you’re fine! That’s good, I guess. But I’m not really sure how you’re fine. How did you - what - where -” He rambled.

I interrupted him by sticking my hand in front of me and stating, “The name’s Lance.”

He followed suit and met my hand in the middle. “I’m Keith”.

“OK, see? That’s a good start.”

I began to turn away in hopes of escaping this situation without ever having to interact with this human ever again. 

“Wait!” He yelled after me. He grabbed my wrist and a defensive hiss came from the back of my throat. This clearly startled the human, but I didn’t care. His knowledge could be a threat to my people and me. “Please don’t go. I’ll take you back to my place so we can talk, OK?”

Apparently, the only option was to follow the human. I’ll answer your questions, I promise, but can we do this somewhere more private?” I asked. The beach was starting to fill up with surfers and the discussion we were about to have was not one to be discussed in the middle of a crowded beach.

“Follow me.”

\---------------------

Keith’s POV

This morning had been relatively normal. That is, until I met a mermaid. Or, merman. I’m not completely sure what to call him. We haven’t really talked yet. 

I was still pretty shaken up while I led him towards my house. It wasn’t mine exactly, I shared the house with my crazy genius roommate, Pidge. My brother, Shiro, also used to live here before he got his own house and started living with his boyfriend, Adam.

I loved the house I lived in. It was right up against the ocean in an area that barely anyone visited anymore. I was on break from college and got to spend almost all of my time at the beach. 

When the mermaid - Lance - said he wanted to talk in private, I immediately started leading him towards my house. Pidge was meeting some of her friends for coffee and Shiro wasn’t planning on visiting today. The entire walk took about two minutes, but it felt like an eternity. There was awkward tension between me and Lance. I was walking in front of him, but I kept glancing back, my eyes darting between his face and his legs, which were once a tail. The transformation from a tail to legs left me in awe, but I found myself unable to pry my eyes away from his face. It was gorgeous. His tanned skin matched well with his brown hair. I have to stop staring now.

When we reached my house, I had him sit on the couch in the front room. He scanned the room, almost like he was making count of the different exits he could use if necessary. 

Without thinking, I blurted out, “What are you?”

“What do you think I am?” He shot back.

“But mermaids don’t exist.”

“Oh, OK, sorry I wasn’t aware. I’ll just stop existing.” 

“That’s not what I meant.” I mumbled.

There was a silence for a couple beats before I said, “What happened to your tail?”

“That’s none of your business. Anything else?” Lance questioned. 

Of course I had other questions, but I had so many of them and I had no idea where to start. I moved to a chair near the couch that Lance was sitting on. As I moved closer to him, he visibly flinched.

“Why do you keep doing that?” I asked, again, without thinking.

“You’re gonna have to be more specific.” 

“Everytime I get near you, you freak out.”

Lance scoffed before he said, “Are you kidding me? Let me break it down for you. My kind has spent all our lives trying to avoid humans figuring out that we exist. If your kind knew that my kind existed, image the consequences! Humans destroy and hunt. You act innocent, when truly, most of you would learn of our existence, and lock us up, study us, and never let us live in peace ever again. So, excuse me if I’m a little jumpy, OK?!” He shouted.

I was stunned to silence. “I would never hurt you, so you don’t have to worry about that.” I tried using a soft voice, hoping this would calm Lance down, and it worked slightly. 

I paused for a second before asking, “Was it a human that caused that wound on your tail?”

“Ugh. No, I went past the kingdom walls and was chased by a shark.”

“The kingdom?” I asked. I saw Lance swear under his breath in a language I didn’t understand before saying, “Yes, the kingdom. God, I’m going to get in so much trouble. I live in the ocean, and I think you already understand that part. Anyways, we have a kingdom under there called Altea. The king and the queen make all of the decisions for our kingdom and they decide what is best for us. For example, they create rules like, no interacting with humans while in your mermaid form, which I have clearly broken.”

“So, there are more of you?”

“Of course there are. Anyways, the rules we have are for our safety and they are very strongly enforced, especially for me.”

“Why is that?” 

“Because I am the prince of Altea.”

It was hard for me to believe that there was an entire kingdom under the sea that had their own rules and royal bloodlines. Of course, I thought to myself, a boy of this beauty must be royalty. 

Clearly, my silence was bothering Lance because he soon spoke up, “You can’t tell anyone. Seriously, there are great consequences for telling a human, for both me and you.”

I slowly nodded, but I still had other questions, and Lance could tell, as he was sitting, waiting for me to ask him more.  
“So, how do you change from a mermaid to a human?”

“Quintessence. And before you ask, quintessence is basically a very strong source of energy that all mermaids use, that humans are not aware of.”

“So-” But I was cut off by the opening and slamming of the front door. Pidge stood there, preoccupied on her phone. She made her way silently to her room before she also closed that door. Lance and I were frozen, waiting for her to notice someone in the house, but she was completely oblivious.

The minute she passed, Lance got up very panicked, and headed out the door before I could stop him.

“Wait!” I called after him. I went to grab his wrist again, and clearly I had not learned my lesson from before. Another hiss came from the back of his throat. Instead of being startled, I held on. “Please don’t leave. I want to know more. Please.” I was begging.

I could see in Lance’s eyes that he was going to say ‘no’, but last minute, his face perked up. 

“Actually, I have an idea.”


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Lance’s POV

I knew this was going to be bad. I knew this was dangerous. I knew, but I didn’t care. I wanted to spend time on land. Not only that, but I also wanted to get to know Keith. On the outside, he seemed very intimidating, but after sitting down to talk, he seemed like a good teacher for me. 

“Actually, I have an idea.” 

Keith’s face lit up and once I saw his smile, I knew that this was the right decision, no matter the dangers. 

“I could stay on land, with you. We could get to know each other and I could also get to explore land and the life of humans.”

“How would you do that? I thought you said you have strict parents.”  
“Of course I have strict parents, they’re the king and queen! But I think I can get past that.”

“How would you convince them to let you stay on land? I thought you said ‘no interacting with humans’ was a rule.”

“I never said that. I said interacting with humans while not also having two legs is breaking a rule. We send spies up to the land all the time. How do you think we know so much about humans?”

Keith seemed to give that a thought for a second before he nodded as to say to continue with my plan.

“I can go back to the castle, and tell my parents that I am going to visit one of my uncles at his military post. He works for the Blade of Marmora, which is our form of defense. My parents want me to become a warrior, so they will love it if they think I’m visiting him. During that time, though, I can spend time with you!”

After I said that, a blush spread across Keith’s face. My plan seemed foolproof, and Keith seemed to think so too. 

“I do have a couple issues though.” I frowned, suddenly realizing that my “foolproof” plan might not work.

“What is it? Can I help?”

“I can pack my things like I’m going on a trip to see my uncle, but then I will not have human necessities. When we send spies to land, we give them money, clothes, a place to stay, etc. and I cannot get those things without my parents learning the truth.”

Almost immediately, Keith responded by saying, “I can help with all of that. I have a place with an extra room that my brother used to stay in. I have clothes and money.”

Lance was relieved, but that was short-lived when he realized he would have to live with two other humans. Not only this, but one of them is possible the cutest human he has ever seen.

 

Two hours later…

 

“Hey, mama!” I made sure to hide my injured tail with a bag that I was carrying.

“Hi, sweetie. What’s up?”

“I have an idea, and you might not like it, but I really am passionate about it, so I want you to hear me out.”

“Of course, baby.”

My mom was not only the queen, but she was one of the most kind-hearted people to ever exist. She always took what I wanted into consideration. However, she never really asked me whether I wanted to be a warrior, she just thrust it upon me, just like my father.

“I want to go visit Uncle Francis at his base for the Blade of Marmora. I want to spend some time there and see what is required for me if I am to join.”

My mom’s tail fluttered with excitement. She swam away for a few seconds and returned with my father.

“Tell him the news, Lance.”

“Oh, OK. Hi, dad. I want to go spend a lot of time with Uncle Francis at the Blade of Marmora because I’m interested in joining when I’m older, but I want to understand more.”

My father wasn’t one to smile. His face barely ever showed emotion, but I could read his face and he was truly proud. He was beaming, thinking his son was going to do something I wasn’t.

It hurt to lie to them. I loved them with all of my heart, but they would never let me do what I truly want to do, which is find peace between the sea and the land. 

“So, can I?” I asked quietly.

My mother looked sheepishly at my father before he responded, “Of course you can, son. I can already see you doing great things there. You may stay for as long as you want, just make sure you keep in touch with us and drop back home every so often.”

“Of course, dad. Thank you so much!” 

“What do you want for dinner, honey?” My mother asked as I turned to leave.

“Oh, I was going to leave very soon, mama. I love your cooking, but I want to leave as soon as possible.” It wasn’t a complete lie. I loved her cooking, and I wanted to leave soon, but because I wanted to see Keith again.

After I packed all my essentials and some extras so my parents would believe I was visiting my uncle, I headed out. On my way out of the castle, Hunk caught me and pulled me to the side of the street. 

“Hey! Where are you going?” he asked. 

Crap. I forgot about Hunk. This is going to break him. 

“Oh hey Hunk, I forgot to tell you, I’m leaving to visit my uncle. You know? The one that is a commander at the Blade of Marmora?”

Immediately his face dropped. I was Hunk’s only friend here besides Allura, who left about a year ago for an investigation on land. Her investigation was never concluded, and she never returned to our kingdom. His face was visible confused. He was my best friend, which meant that he knew I didn’t want anything to do with the Blade of Marmora or combat, but he didn’t ask my reasoning. I assume that he thought my parents were forcing me to go.

“H-how long are you going to be gone?” He asked.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it was going to be a while, so I took the easiest way out and said, “I’ll be gone a while, but you know my parents, man. They’re making me visit a lot.” 

Clearly this was hurting Hunk, but I wasn’t sure how much longer I could wait or how much longer I could hide the wound that was still marked on my tail.

“Look, I have to go, OK? I’m swimming alone but I know the way, so don’t worry about me, OK? I know you like to worry. I’ll see you soon, OK?” 

Hunk nodded and I silently thanked him for making this easy. I wanted to tell him so much more about what I was going to be doing, but I didn’t have time and I was grateful that he wasn’t in the mood for asking questions. 

Quickly, I pulled him into a hug before I nodded towards him and swam out towards the strip of beach next to Keith’s house.

 

\---------------------

Keith’s POV

The minute Lance left to go inform his family, I started to clean everything. I wanted to make a good impression of humans. Based on how Lance talked, he didn’t trust them or like them. I want him to know that we aren’t all bad. Plus, if everything goes well, Lance might even consider dating one. 

After about two hours, I heard someone knock on our door. I opened it before Pidge got the chance to and Lance stood on the other side. He seemed very tense and had a bag on his arm. The bag was very small, and I couldn't believe that was all he had. 

“Come in, please.” I said and pushed him inside. I led him down the hallway and opened the door to Shiro’s old room. He walked in, looking around and set his bag down on the bed in the center of the room. 

“Did you say this was your brother’s room?”

“Oh, yeah. His name is Shiro.”

“Why did he leave?”

“He found a serious boyfriend and they moved into their own place.”

“Oh.” Lance headed over to Shiro’s old desk and picked up a shell sitting on top. “This is beautiful.”

“I bet you’re used to those type of shells.” I said. Lance shrugged in response and turned back to face me. 

“So, am I going to get a tour?”

“Oh yeah, of course. Follow me.” I turned quickly to hide the involuntary blush rising to my cheeks.

I showed him downstairs, without bothering Pidge. We headed upstairs where there was only my room and another bathroom. 

“This is my room. You can go through that and pick some clothes.”

“Oh yes, I remember reading about this. Humans sleep in different clothes covered in sheets. I also have to ask. I heard a rumor that you cover yourselves in water to clean yourselves. Is that true?”

I let out a laugh and led Lance to my bathroom. I turned the knob in the shower and water started coming down from above. Lance jumped into the corner of the room.

“What’s wrong? I thought you were used to water.”

“Um, I can’t have the other human know that I am a mermaid.” Lance said. He looked terrified and tense again, just when I thought that we were finally beginning to warm up to each other. 

“So, you will change back into a mermaid the minute you come in contact with water?”

“Give or take a couple of seconds, yes.”

I immediately starting thinking of all the things that contained water that Lance would not be able to enjoy without having his secret revealed.

I quickly turned off the shower and asked Lance to follow me back to my bedroom. 

“About Pidge, my roommate. We need to come up with a story. She needs something to understand why you’re here. And we can’t tell her you’re a royal mermaid.”

Lance seemed to give that some thought before he asked me how much I trusted Pidge.

“I trust her with my life. She has been my friend since before I can remember.”

“Can she keep a secret?” Lance asked worriedly. 

“Your secret?” Lance nodded. “Yes, I think she can, you just have to be gentle and explain it to her like you did to me. Also, you need to know that if you tell her, she is a scientist. She is going to want to know everything about you.”

This made Lance’s face twist up.

“Some of the elders warned us that some humans would test us and make us ‘test subjects’ for experiments and stuff like that. Is it going to be like that?” 

I could read the fear in Lance’s voice, so I comforted him in the only way I knew how.   
“Pidge would never hurt a soul on purpose,” I assured Lance, “and if she does something you are uncomfortable with, you can let me know and I will take care of it.” I explained.

He seemed to relax at this and I was going to grab his shoulder, but I remembered how he reacted to being touched last time, so I left it alone. 

“Are you ready to tell her now? I think I hear her making dinner downstairs. I don’t want to rush you. It’s your secret.”

“I think I’m ready.” 

Lance nodded and followed me as I headed down the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated. Thank you so much for reading :))


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Lance’s POV

I was beyond terrified. I was lying to my parents, I was lying to my kingdom, I told one human, and now I was going to tell another. I tried to take deep breaths, but I was still uneasy from being out of the water. I found that looking at Keith helped. His gaze was comforting and I felt like I was in the water again. 

We made our way downstairs and I saw the same girl from earlier today mixing something in a pot over a fire. 

“Hey, do you want some-” She stopped when she noticed that I was walking behind Keith. “Um, did you guys just come from Keith’s bedroom?” she asked while laughing. I wasn't really sure what was funny but Keith did not look happy so I didn’t laugh. 

“Pidge, there is someone who I want you to meet, his name is Lance.”

“Hi!” I stuck my hand out.

Pidge looked at me strangely before she turned back to Keith and asked, “Is he your boyfriend or something?”

“No! No, no, he’s a friend and he is going to be staying with us for a while.”

“Oh, ok,” she said, giving a weird look to Keith, before she turned back to me, stuck her hand out and said, “Pleasure to meet you, name’s Pidge.”

I smiled and asked what she was making.

“What does it look like?” She shot back.

“Oh, um, I’m not really sure…” I trailed off, looking to Keith for help.

“Look, there’s something we need to talk about with you once you’re done making Mac N’ Cheese, OK?” Keith asked Pidge. She said OK, but she was still staring at me, I think for not knowing the answer to her question.

Keith urged me to follow him to the back room we were in this morning. 

“Have you ever had human food?”

“Well, humans eat all types of food. I usually eat whatever food we catch, which is fish. Humans eat fish, but they also eat land animals.”

“So, you’ve really only eaten fish your entire life” Keith asked with a crazy face.  
“Yes.” I responded. 

Keith was still making a face when Pidge walked in with a steaming bowl of orange mush.

“What’s up?” She asked with a mouthful of food.

“Can you please go into this with an open mind?”

 

Keith’s POV 

“I always go into things with an open mind, Keith. Dang, it’s like you don’t know me.”

“Just please go into with an extra open mind.” I asked.

“OK, OK, man, chill. What’s up?”

“Lance has to tell you something” I said, and when Pidge’s attention turned to Lance, he looked like a deer in headlights. He started choking over his own words.

“It’s ok. Just tell her.” I assured him it would all be OK, but it might not be enough.

He took a deep breath and started very strong with, “I am not of this place. I’m just here to study humans and I needed a place to stay, so Keith is letting me stay with you.” Lance explained.

I smiled at Lance for saying what he needed to say, but Lance’s face dropped when he hear Pidge laughing. 

“Why are you laughing? I-I, did I do something funny?”

“No, Lance, Pidge is just insensitive and crazy.” I elbowed Pidge hard in the ribcage. Pidge made a pained noise before she came out of her laughing fit. She finally looked between Lance and me and noticed that neither of us were kidding.

“I swear if this is some kind of prank where you pretend to have an alien friend.”

“I’m not an alien! I’m a mermaid!” Lance yelled, but soon shrunk back down trying to become as small as possible. 

“What?!” Pidge shouted incredulously.

“I-I’m a mermaid. Well, a merman. But we usually just say mermaids.”

“You’ve got to be sh**ting me.” Pidge said, as she turned back to me to see if this was true. I nodded and told her it was true.

“Can you prove that I’m not just getting pranked? Please? And I swear if I am, I am going to have severe trust issues.”

“It’s not my place to say, you have to ask Lance.” I said.

“Do you want to take me back to your, what did you call it? A-a shower?” Lance asked me.

“How about the bathtub?” I said back. Lance nodded and started to follow me as I got up and headed upstairs. 

I filled up the bathtub about halfway before I asked Lance if this was good. He said it would have to do, so Keith told Pidge to come in. 

“So, are you just going to, get in?” PIdge asked, slightly confused.

“Yes. It will happen soon after I get wet.” Lance answered with little emotion.

Lance made his way into the tub and sat in it. After about five seconds, there was a glow around his legs. I couldn’t look away. When I turned to Pidge, she had her eyes also glued on what was happening. Seconds after, the light cleared and Lance was sitting in the bathtub that was way too tiny, staring up at the two humans.

Pidge was still in shock from seeing a mermaid. I had already seen this, but without the shock of learning mermaids were real, I was able to get a good look at Lance in his mermaid form. His tail was a breathtaking blue, with shiny scales on the sides. I let my eyes slide up and a blush spread across my cheeks. Lance’s chest wasn’t bare. It had the same shiny scale on his shoulders in small patches. He was truly beautiful.

“Guys?” Lance asked in a small voice. I was broken out of the trance and so was Pidge. Now, she was going to start rambling, I could tell. 

“How is this possible? How do you just transform? What happened right there? What are these? How is this possible? How is this possible?” Pidge just kept going on and on. 

I studied Lance’s face and he was clearly terrified. He was at subject to two humans with no place to hide in mermaid form, which meant he felt vulnerable. A switch flipped in me and I realized that Pidge was definitely not helping this situation. 

“Pidge!” I yelled, a little too loudly. It worked, though. She immediately stopped, looked at me, then at Lance, and started apologizing. Lance shot me a grateful look and I felt like we were definitely making progress. 

The rest of the night, Lance started warming up to Pidge a little more. He told her the same story that he told me earlier that day. Then, I added the fact that he had never had human food. This made Pidge glow with excitement. So from 7PM TO 4AM, the three of them tried every fast food place they could, every junk food they could, and they laughed like there was no tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated. Hope you enjoyed this chapter :))


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Lance’s POV

Humans weren’t as bad as I thought they were. I take that back. They were awesome. At least these ones were. We spent the night eating and laughing. When we got back at around 4AM, we were all tired. Pidge left for her room after saying her goodnights. Then, Keith said he was going to bed as well and said goodnight. I stood in the hall for a second before I remembered I had to try sleeping in a bed. I sat on top of the bed, got under the blanket, and put my head to the pillow, but sleep never came. Instead, I sat there, thinking about the last 24 hours.

When I finally heard noises coming from downstairs, I headed down. I saw Pidge making some kind of thing over a fire again and Keith was sitting at the table in the kitchen arguing about the best Marvel character.

Keith turned towards me and smiled. “Hi, how did you sleep?”

“Did you even sleep? You look terrible.” Pidge said.

“Pidge, that’s rude.” Keith said making a face at Pidge. 

“It’s ok. I actually didn’t sleep.” As I said that, Pidge made a face back at Keith.

“Why not? Was something wrong?” Keith asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

“I, well, um, I don’t really, well; I’ve never slept out of the water before.” I spat out.

“Really? That’s so interesting. So, I was thinking that maybe I could have a skin sample to see what makes your skin react with water that way.” Keith shot Pidge yet another look. 

“Does that hurt?” Without giving Pidge time to answer, Keith says that she will not take a skin sample, and he brings the topic back to sleeping.

“I’m sorry you didn’t sleep. If you have energy though, we have all day to do something. Anything you want to do or try?” Keith asked, still smiling.

“Let’s go swimming while you’re a mermaid!” Pidge screamed excitedly.

“Pidge, it’s his decision.” Keith scolded.

“Yeah, I’m OK with that. I think some time in the water would be good for me right now.”

“OK, how about we eat breakfast and then we can head to the beach?”

“Sounds good to me, what’s for breakfast?” I asked.

Pidge smiled and said,“Oh, you’re really going to like these, Lance. They’re called eggs.”

 

Keith’s POV 

It was beautiful outside. There was a steady breeze, and the sun was warm against my skin, but it was tolerable heat. I watched as Pidge jumped in the water, and Lance wasn’t far behind. I took my time getting in the water.

As I made my way in, I saw Lance swimming around. His tail was gliding through the water masterfully and he looked like he belonged. I pushed myself further into the water. As I got further in, Pidge began splashing salt water in my face. Oh the game was on. 

As soon as I started splashing her back, something grabbed me from behind and pulled me under. I panicked for a moment before I realized it was Lance. When he pulled me back up to the surface, Pidge was laughing hysterically.

“That’s what you get!”

Behind him, Lance was also laughing. I would stare at his smile forever if I could. It was beautiful, but I knew if I stared for too long, Pidge would begin to catch on. So, I splashed both of them at the same time and headed back towards shore. Pidge followed me. 

She came up behind me and told me she had promised to meet some friends and she completely forgot.

“Go. Have fun. I’ll have fun with my new mermaid friend by myself.” 

Pidge scoffed at that before she grabbed all of her stuff and left. As I watched her go, I grabbed a scuba mask from my bag and brought it back to the water with me.

“Where is Pidge going?” Lance asked.

“Oh, she’s going to meet some friends, but she’ll be back tonight I think.”

“Can we meet them? Her friends? If they’re anything like you guys, I would love to meet them.”

I could feel my chest warm from that comment. I had successfully convinced Lance that not all humans were bad. 

“I’ll ask Pidge when we can arrange something like that. We’ll have to create a cover story for you though.”

“OK.’ He responded before quickly changing the subject, “What’s that for?” Lance said as he pointed towards my mask.

“Oh, this is so that I can swim with you and still see what’s happening. See your tail and everything under the water.” At that moment, I thought I saw a blush spread across Lance’s cheeks.

“Follow me, then.” he said before he shot down under the water. I pulled the mask over my eyes and nose before I dove after him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated, and as always, hope you enjoyed!! :))


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Lance’s POV

When Pidge brought up potentially going to the beach for the day, I tried to hide my excitement. I missed the water, even after only being gone for less than a day. It wasn’t that I was not enjoying my time on land, with my new human friends. However, there was danger on land, and familiarity in the water. 

When we finally arrived on the beach, there was a fear that sparked in me. I had just recently wished that I was back in the water, but changing in front of humans was new, and a bit strange. They had done nothing yet to lose my trust, but from the books I studied in school, humans were manipulative and deceiving. I took a deep breath and pushed myself towards the familiar beach. It was going to be fine. Pidge is good. Keith is good. I will be fine.

The minute I entered the water, my fears were washed away. It was strange watching humans try to swim. Their limbs flailed gracelessly and cut sharply through the water. I swam far out, but pulled myself back in when I realized that Pidge and Keith had a difficult time treading in deep water. 

Now that Pidge was gone, it was just me and Keith in the water. His jet black hair was stuck to his forehead. Keith now had a plastic contraption in his hand that he said would help him swim, so I went deeper into the water and pulled him along.

“Follow me, then.” I said and dove under. I turned to find Keith stopped in his tracks staring at me. I cocked my head to the side, but kept moving forward. Keith had to return to the surface multiple times for air during our journey. 

“OK, we’re here. You might want to take an extra deep breath.” I warned before I shot back down underneath the surface. 

We curved around a pile of rocks to find a beautiful coral reef, full of thriving wildlife. Keith’s eyes grew wide and his lips turned into a smile, taking in his surroundings. I smiled back. I liked Keith’s face when he was smiling. We spent a few more moment there before Keith pointed towards the surface and swam up. I stayed for a few more seconds, trying to gather myself and control the rapidly growing blush on my face before following him. 

“That was beautiful. I can’t believe you live around that.” Keith stated in awe.

“Well, I’m used to it. I’ve grown up around it. There is a particularly beautiful garden in the back of the castle that I think you would also like very much.” I sighed at that, understanding that Keith would never get to enjoy the beauties of the castle. “I wish you could see the castle. You would love it.” I told him.

“I’m sure I would.” Keith said with a laugh. “I want to-” but he was cut off when I pulled him behind a rock quickly.

“What?” Keith asked, clearly concerned. I shushed him and pointed towards four heads that had bobbed up to the surface. I recognized them.

“Who are they?” Keith asked, quieter this time. 

“Hunters. They are catching fish. They’ll recognize me and by law, they will have to tell the king and queen about what they have seen. We have to go. Now.” I whispered in Keith’s ear. At that moment, I realized that I had wrapped my hands around his waist, keeping both him and me afloat. I quickly let go and pointed back towards his house. We swam back hurriedly, not looking behind us.

After I dried off and got legs again, Keith headed towards his bag and pulled out some type of device.

“What is that?” I asked, reaching out for the object in his hands. 

“It’s a phone. Almost every human has one. They are used to talk to people without having to be with them.”

“Are you sure they’re popular? They were not in our books on humans.”

“Well, your books may be old. These are new tech. Anyways, Pidge texted me. There is going to be a party and she said we could go. But only if you want to, of course.”

I showed him a toothy grin, excited, and slightly terrified, to be meeting more humans.

“Of course I want to go. When?”

 

Keith’s POV

After running from the hunters we found in the water, we got out of the water and dried off. Dark clouds were looming in the sky, so I knew it was probably a good idea to get out of the water anyways. I opened my phone to a text message from Pidge saying where and when a party would be if we were up to it.

My first instincts were to say no. Any social situation wasn’t exactly where you could find me. I tried to avoid parties as much as possible. I had a couple friends, and if I wanted to hang out with them, I would. Parties, however, were just an excuse for teens to get drunk and make stupid decisions. Also, going to a party meant bringing Lance with us. If Lance couldn’t touch water without being exposed and he had never dealt with the repercussions of alcohol, I decided it wasn’t a good time for him to try now. However, I remembered how he had asked to hang out with some of Pidge’s friends earlier, so I asked him if he was up for it, silently praying that he would say no. 

Of course, he said yes. He was just as curious about human culture as I was about mermaid culture. So, we headed back to my house and I told him to follow me to my room so I could give him clothes for the party in an hour.

When I handed him a new pair of shorts and shirt, he started to take off what he was currently wearing.

“No! No, sorry. You, j-just humans don’t really do that in front of each other. Unless you really like that person” I tried explaining.

Lance shot me a confused look. “I really like you. Can I do it now?” He asked innocently.

I sighed before answering, “That’s not what I meant. How about you just take the clothes back to your room and change while I take a shower. I guess you can’t take a shower, so just wait for me to be done, and then we can go.” Lance nodded in response and turned to go back to his room.

As I hopped in the shower, I was thinking about earlier. Lance’s swimming was extraordinary. Not only that, but his tail got even more beautiful every time I saw it. However, I really lost it when he grabbed my waist. I don’t think he noticed he was doing it, but I felt comfortable in his arm. There was something comforting about his arms around me. 

I tried shaking those feelings off before I stepped out of the shower, got dressed, and walked down to meet Lance.

“Are you ready?” I called out down the stairs. Then, I heard the clashing of pans and ran the rest of the way down the stairs. I found Lance standing in the middle of kitchen.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I-I, it was just, I don’t know, I just wanted to-” 

“Shh. It’s OK. I’m not mad. I just wanted to make sure you were OK.” I said.

“Yeah, I’m OK.” 

I nodded before I put all the pots and pans back into a cabinet.

“I’m sorry.” Lance said again.

“I said it’s OK. It’s not a big deal.”

“No, well, I mean I’m sorry about that. But I also just wanted to say sorry for pushing myself on you. I mean, you were just being a nice person trying to help an injured person and instead, you found a mermaid. Now, I’m staying with you and you have to babysit me and do things for me. I’m sorry, you don’t deserve-”

“Hey. Please don’t apologize. I agreed to it. Yes, I wasn’t expecting to find a mermaid, but I’m glad I met you. You never have to apologize.” 

At this, Lance’s face visibly softened and melted into a smile.

“OK. Thank you.”

“No problem. Now, how about that party?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated, as well as any suggestions that you want to see in this fic. Hope you enjoyed :))

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated. Hope you enjoyed :))


End file.
